CAIRO, Nov 19: Illness forced Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to halt a keynote speech to parliament on Wednesday for 45 minutes before he returned, still pale and hoarse, to finish his remarks.

Officials said Hosni Mubarak, 75, was suffering from a bout of “severe flu” which had already obliged him to postpone the same speech on Sunday to the People’s Assembly.

In a drama shown nationwide, state television cut its broadcast after President Mubarak, while speaking at the podium, started coughing and wiping his brow with his handkerchief.

When transmission resumed minutes later with the president absent from the chamber, assembly speaker Fathi Srour told the politicians “the president is fine and in several minutes he will come back to resume his speech”.

But it was about 45 minutes before Mr Mubarak reappeared in the amphitheatre-like chamber, pale-looking but smiling and waving to politicians who gave him a standing ovation.—AFP